Replies

"I have always understood civil war to be defined as a war where two factions fight for control of a government. The “civil war” fought in the United States was not that, but rather a desire by one side to be completely separated from the other and autonomous, which would be aptly titled the “War of Southern Independence.” "

The Official Records compiled by the US Government of both Union and Confederate armies called it the War of the Rebellion. The Civil War is what people chose to call it.

As to the question of what the definition of a Civil War is, the Geneva Convention offers the following criteria.

1. The party in revolt must be in possession of a part of the national territory.

2. The insurgent civil authority must exercise de facto authority over the population within the determinate portion of the national territory.

3. The insurgents must have some amount of recognition as a belligerent.

4. The legal Government is "obliged to have recourse to the regular military forces against insurgents organized as military."

The Confederacy meet those criteria, so calling it a Civil War is not wrong.